Wellington

March 29, 2024

It has been a hot day reaching into the early thirties and the weather is predicted to stay like this until the end of the Easter Weekend. The heat and the Eastern Weekend traffic suggested we should keep our cycling to a minimum. So today we had a short ride from Mumbil to Wellington.

One longish climb and then some gentle rollers until Wellington.

We had about four kilometers along the Mitchell Highway as we approached Wellington. Pretty busy and I am glad we took Gerald's advice and used the Stuart Town and Mumbil route. We headed through the town to the caravan park on the Macquarie River. It has a well equipped kitchen and we were hoping to cook up a nice meal but being Easter Friday, Wellington was pretty much shut with the grocery stores only opening tomorrow. So we will have to make do with our dry stores for supper. We will have to detour back into to town tomorrow to restock.

First chore was laundry. We got the whole lot done including sleeping bag inners and towels. Everything dried pretty quickly in the dry heat.

Then we spent some time researching our route, taking into account the Easter Weekend traffic. We think we will head to Ballimore tomorrow on some back roads and then to Dunedoo on the Golden Highway on Sunday in the hope that it will be the quietest day of the weekend traffic-wise. If it gets hectic we have some back road options but the ride will get a bit tougher, something we want to avoid in this hot weather. Cycling on Monday is a no-no so we will take a rest day in Dunedoo.

Afterwards I spent some time at the river hoping to pick up some birds but it wasn't particularly rewarding.

It was quite peaceful alongside the Macquarie River. The railway bridge in the background.

There were a few Red Wattlebirds (Anthochaera carunculata) feeding in the Eucalyptus trees on the banks of the river.

Our dry stores supper wasn't too bad. Leigh had found some dried porcine mushrooms a week or two back which, along with olive oil, garlic and Parmigiano cheese on some penne made a good base for a glass or two of the Pinot Noir gifted to us by Gerald and Angela at Patina.

Today's ride: 26 km (16 miles)
Total: 919 km (571 miles)

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